No Algae and would like some.

[WVNed]

I was just doing a water change and looking into my tank with some of the water out of it and the pumps off.
I took a few shots looking down into the tank.

There is no algae except a little coralline and a small green patch inside my overflow box.
I have stuff that would like to eat it. I am giving them dried seaweed but watching the Kole tang pick at bare rocks all day made me want to post this
I don't dose anything except a little pickling lime in my ATO
Simple 2 chamber sump with a skimmer and heaters and ATO stuff down there. No lights.
I don't do any regular testing but my nitrates and phosphates where high several weeks ago. 2 and 40 with an API test kit.
So I have cut back on feeding for a while.
I have a ReefBreeders Photon V2 and have the red and green channels at 60%, Blues at 70% and white at 30%. Dont really want to change it. The tank looks good to me this way and everything is happy.

I would like to add some macro algae to my tank but don't think it's going to live unless I do something different.

 

[brandon429]

algae for sure, regardless of nutrients:

get a high pressure sodium plant grow metal halide or a 6500 k fw halide and mount it down low and wait 60 days. the heat and the wrong spectrum w bring out algae from any body of water formerly deemed nutrient perfect. from this I takeaway the notion that algae issues in a reef tank are nutrient caused only some of the time, the rest of the time its just really good plants exploiting a niche / advantage however long lasting that may be.

 

[Pellikan]

Just throwing this out there...
Could it be that you have algae in your tank but the tang is eating it as fast as it grows. He's pecking at the rocks for something. You said you have high nitrates, that would usually be an indicator for algae growth. If you want to put macroalgae in your tank then go for it. Start small and see what your tang does. Keep up with the supplementary feedings though, your testing seems happy that way.

 

[Pellikan]

Last sentence should read

Your tang seems happy...

Dang autocorrect!

 

[WVNed]

I had some algae when the tank was new and I was running Chinese black boxes for lights but it is gone now.

 

[Pellikan]

I had some algae when the tank was new and I was running Chinese black boxes for lights but it is gone now.

Like most things there is probably multiple things which contributed to having algae when your tank was younger. Couple that come to mind are; your Chinese box probably had less precise colors so there was some leakage into the spectrum algae likes (6500), newer tanks tend to have more nutrients and if you had the tang he probably was smaller/ less comfortable and therefore ate less. Also, your husbandry skills may not have been as good as they are now.
I could go on but the point is things change due to equipment, habits, chemistry, biology, tank inhabitants and etc. So, if you want macroalgae then add it. Keeping in mind you're adding yet another level of complexity to your tank.